Growing your own food starts with quality soil.  Organic soil is preferred due less toxins being exposed to your body.  A good way to start preparing your soil with little cost is to begin with your kitchen scraps and start composting.  By composting you have a continuous supply of quality fertilized soil full of dense nutrients for you to consume. Kitchen scraps to use in compost and regrowing Coffee grinds  Tea bags Hair from brushes Used paper towels with no meat or toxic chemical exposure Vegetable scraps from cooking (always raw only, and No potato peels) Fruit peels and cores Egg shells- adds calcium to the soil that will be absorbed by the food you eat Non colored cardboard Newspaper and shredded paper, non colored Red worms to speed up composting and add more nutrients Red Worms are a great additive to creating a quality soil environment whether you are growing in pots or the ground.  They are natural tillers, and their castings (worm poop) is an excellent fer